Television networks have become a predominant means through which individuals receive media content, such as entertainment and information. As technology has improved, media content providers, using computers and televisions, have been able to provide more and more media content to larger and larger audiences. Broadcast, cable, and satellite television providers transmit television signals containing vast amounts of content, such as movies, news, special interest shows, audio, advertising, and home shopping programs, among others. It is not uncommon for cable and satellite television users to have over one hundred channels to choose from.
One problem with current approaches toward media content distribution is that there is too much content provided to any given user. In an attempt to maximize viewership and/or profits, content providers typically transmit content to as many users as possible, who are able to receive the content. From the user's perspective, the massive amount of transmitted content results in an “information overload” effect. Users are inundated with such a vast amount of content that effectively choosing what they most want to view becomes difficult. Users simply do not have time to view all of the content, and therefore must be selective. Moreover, for any given user, the content that streams into the user's home includes a large amount of content that the user will not want to watch.
Most computer and television users know a priori (i.e., before receiving it) of certain categories of content that they will not want to view based only on the type of content. For example, many users, particularly parents, do not want pornographic content to be an option for selection on their television or computer. As another example, many users may not want to view sports, while other users may know a priori that they only want to watch one sport, e.g., bowling. As another example, many users may know before hand that they will never choose to watch cooking shows. In short, television or viewing device users frequently know ahead of time of certain categories of media content that they will not want to view. Unfortunately, notwithstanding users' a priori knowledge, the receipt and filtering of content are difficult and time consuming.
One aid that has been developed to help the user sort through the vast number of channels and program options is a programming guide. A programming guide typically presents all available television options in a scrolling fashion across the TV screen. Programming guides are difficult to read and confusing because they simultaneously present too much information and too little information for a discriminating user. Programming guides present too much information because they provide descriptions for every item of available content, including unwanted content. The user typically must read through all the descriptions to determine his/her preferred content. So many channels are typically presented on a programming guide that a user could easily miss a desired show while reading all the options, many of which are unwanted. Programming guides present too little information for each available content item because the descriptions are necessarily short due to limited space and time in the guide. Programming guide descriptions are frequently not descriptive enough to allow a discriminating user to effectively determine whether any particular content item should be blocked.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been developed.